Railway rail holding device



1949- R. 'SONNEVILLE RAILWAY RAIL HOLDING DEVICE Filed March 16, 1948 2Shee-tsSheet l nu znfor A g- R. SONNEVILLE RAILWAY RAIL HOLDING DEVICEFiled March 16, 1948 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 j'nuenfor; kojr 5o'nneW/kl wAhdrnej Patented Aug. 30, 1949 RAILWAY RAIL HOLDING DEVICE RogerSonneville, Paris, France, assignor to Usine des Ressorts du Nerd,Levallois-Perret, France,

a French company Application March 16, 1948, Serial No. 15,238 In FranceApril 5, 1947 4 Claims;

The devices normally used heretofore for fixing a rail to woodensleepers (coach-screws, dogspikes) are rigid. Consequently, when thefastening means (coach-screw for example) has just been tightened, therail is held against the sleeper with the maximum force; but if theslightest play occurs, owing to wear or to a slight loosening, the forceholding the rail against the sleeper becomes zero or nearly Zero.

The elimination of the force exerted by the fastening means allowscreeping movements and jarring to occur, and the play increasesaccording to a rapidly increasing law, to which it is necessary to putan end periodically by an upkeep operation.

It may be said that, in practice, the rail is only actually fixed to thesleepers and held by the fastening means during the transient periodsthat follow the tightening or servicing of the fastening means and that,between these periods, the rail is free and takes advantage of itsfreedom to creep, wear and dislocate. If, owing to its nature, woodwithstands shocks and vibrations fairly well, this is not the case withreinforced concrete sleepers which are quickly and irreparablydisintegrated.

To overcome these serious defects, various resilient holding membershave already been proposed, but they did not exert a suflicient pressureor hold the rail satisfactorily to prevent transverse and longitudinalmovements.

A feature of this invention is to provide a resilient device for fixingrails to sleepers, which holds the rail satisfactorily on its supportand prevents the transverse and longitudinal movements of the rail, aswell as the overturning of the fastening means. in that it comprises aresilient clip formed by a spring blade which is folded over and bentround in such a manner as to form a loop which is extended by twounequal superposed arms, both of which are provided with a hole for theinsertion of suitable headed fastening means, bolt or coachscrew, saidclip being adapted to bear by means of said loop against the sleeper orsupport and to press on the one hand, by means of its longer arm,against the upper face of the flange of the rail so as to exert avertical resilient pressure on said flange, and to bear on the otherhand, by means of its shorter arm which is spaced from the sleeper,against the side edge of the flange, so as to form a lateral abutmentfor said flange, the loop of the clip projecting towards the sleeper andfitting into a hollow housing or recess of corresponding shape providedin the sleeper.

Said device is remarkable- In order to distribute more evenly thepressure on the surface of the loop that bears against the sleeper andto decrease the wear of said surface, the housing in the sleeper thataccommodates the loop is 50 arranged as to have an improved surfacewhich is adapted to decrease the wear on the sleeper and distribute thepressure more evenly over said sleeper.

The devices according to the invention are particularly suitable forfixing rails resting on concrete sleepers or stringers through themedium of a resilient sole-plate.

- The ensuing description, made with reference to the accompanyingdrawing which is given by way of a non-limitative example, will clearlyillustrate the use and operation of the invention.

Fig. 1 shows a side view of one embodiment of a clip according to theinvention.

Fig. 2 shows a transverse section of a rail with the clip in operativeposition.

Fig. 3 is a section through 33 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a plan view corresponding to Fig. 2, on a smaller scale.

Fig. 5 shows a modified form of, a device according to the invention.

Fig. 6 shows a similar device with coach-screw attachment and a bushinginserted between the loop and the support, and

Fig. 7 is a partial plan view corresponding to Fig. 6 with the clip andcoach-screw removed.

Referring to Fig. 1 the clip comprises a blade of treated spring steel,which has been bored by punching and shaped in the hot state by bendingand then swaging in such a manner as to form a rounded loop l, a longupper arm 2 and a shorter lower arm 3, each of the two arms being thusprovided with a hole ll of larger diameter the fastening bolt 9 so as toprovide a clearance.

As shown in particular in Fig. 2, the rail 5 rests on the sleeper 6 bymeans of its flange l, a strip 8 of rubber or other flexible orresilient material being preferably interposed between said flange andsaid sleeper. On either side of the rail, a clip such as the one shownin Fig. 1 is held in position by a bolt 9 which is engaged in a hole Inof the sleeper and is provided with a nut I I; furthermore, the loop lof the clip fits into a rounded cavity l2 of the sleeper, which forms ashoulder.

The upper arm 2 of the clip is preferably capped by an intermediatemember I3 and the action of the nut II is exerted on said member l3. Atthe beginning of the tightening operation, the end of the'arm 2 comesinto contact at If, near the web l6 of the rail 5, with the flange 5 ofsaid rail;

as the tightening increases, the arm 2 becomes curved and abuts at 11against the edge of the flange 1.

As regards the short lower arm 3, its length is such that its end I8 isin contact with the side edge of the flange l and thus forms an abutmentwhich prevents or limits the transverse movements or creeping of therail.

Said arm 3 does not bear against the sleeper 6 and n filler plate isinserted between the clip and the sleeper.

Furthermore, a clearance is preferably left between the two arms 2 and 3of the clip so as to increase the resilience of the clip.

It will be seen that at E5 a predetermined resilient pressure isobtained, which remains substantially constant while the loads arepassing over it, such loads only having the effect of resilientlycompressing the rubber sole-plate 8.

On the other hand, the pressure at i1 is for the greater part eliminatedowing to the downward movement of the rail while the loads are passingover it, which compensates for the compression of the sole-plate 3 dueto the passing of said loads. Consequently, when there is no loadimmediately above the sleeper, the pressure of the clip is high andprevents any lateral or longitudinal movement of the rail, but when aload is passing, the table of the sleeper 6 and the sole-plate 8 onlysupport a limited pressure and not the sum of the pressures produced bythe rolling load and the clamping pressure of the clip.

For ascertaining the useful limit of the tightening of the clip, itshould be noted that as soon as contact has been obtained at ll, theoperator who continues to tighten the nut ll quickly encounters a stiffresistance which tells him that it is useless to endeavour to tighten itfurther; the use of specially trained labour is therefore unnecessary.

The stresses supported by the rail when the loads are passing over itare of three kinds; the longitudinal stresses (creeping), the transversestresses and the overturning stresses, which tend to producecorresponding movements of the rail.

The longitudinal movements are prevented by the pressure exerted on theflange of the rail by the long arm 2. On the other hand, the fitting ofthe loop I of the clip in the corresponding housing S2 of the sleeperprevents such rotation of the clip in the horizontal plane as may be dueto the pulling force exerted on the arm 2 by the rail during itscreeping movement.

The transverse movements are prevented by the short arm 3 which abutsagainst the edge of the flange of the rail; during this transversethrust, the lower portion of the clip which is free since it does notbear against the sleeper and is provided with a hole 4 or largerdiameter than the bolt 9, can move slightly and the portion a of theloop thus acts as a spring; this arrangement eliminates frictional wearand particularly the shearing of the bolt 9.

Finally, the overturning of the rail is eliminated. owing to the factthat should overturning of the rail tend to occur for example in thedirection of the arrow f1, when a load is passing over it, the edge I)of the flange has a tendency to be lifted in the direction of the arrowf2, but its movement is pped by the abutment of said edge 1) against theupper arm 2 of the clip at the point ll. On the other hand, since theholes 4 ar of larger diameter than the bolt 9, the clip can rockslightly about the bearing point of its loop I on the sleeper 6 withoutcausing the bolt 9 to shear.

It is obvious that, without exceeding the scope of th invention, it ispossible to make modifications in the embodiment which has just been de-In particular, it is possible to eliminate the intermediate member iii,the nut ii in that case acting directly on the arm 2 of the clip;furthermore, the bolt 9 may be replaced by a usual coach-screw. Finally,the diameter of the holes 4 should be so chosen as to prevent contactbetween the bolt and the clip under normal conditions of use.

Fig. 5 shows a modification of the invention, in which a clip l9 has itsupper arm bent downwardly at the end thereof facing the rail, and formsa kind of hook 28, the end 2| of which is in turn bent upwards so thatsaid hook bears against the flange 7 at a single point Before the nut ii is tightened on bolt t, there is a space between the upwardly bent end2i of hook 211 and the underwall of the longer upper arm of clip [3.When the nut II is further tightened, a second abutting contact occursat 23 between the end 2| of hook 29 and the wall of the upper arm of theclip. The contacts 22 and 23 respectively perform the same function asthe bearing contact l5 and the abutment contact l! of the clip shown inFig. 2.

Insteacl of making the blade which forms the clip of constantcross-section, it may be made of variable thickness, for example ofcontinuously decreasing cross-section from the lower arm to the upperarm.

Fig. 6 shows a method of attachment by means of a coach-screw 30 inwhich the loop of the clip fits in the substantially cylindrical bearingsurface of a bushing 3| which engages in a corresponding housing l2 ofthe sleeper B. The movements of the bushing 3i are prevented by means oftwo diametrical lugs 33 and 34 with which it is provided. An aperture 35(Fig. 7) is provided in the lug 3 3 for the coach-screw 30 to passthrough.

The bushing 3! may be formed by a metal blade or by a sheet of resilientor plastic material, rubber for example.

The insertion of this bearing bushing 3! is very important when woodenor cement sleepers are used, since it enables damage to such sleepers tobe prevented when sudden stresses are transmitted thereto.

In the case of metal sleepers, the surface of the loop I of the clip maybe made to bear onto its housing through a special member fixed to thesleeper by bolting, riveting, welding or otherwise.

In the case of wooden sleepers, the hardness and the resistance to Wearof the housing or recess of the loop or of the bushing may be increasedalong the periphery of said housing by a suitable known process such asthe compression of the Wood fibres, hardening by heat, impregnating witha resin or a lacquer, cementing a member of hard wood, fibre or plasticmaterial.

This particular arrangement ma furthermore be combined with theinsertion of a metal or other filling member between the loop and theimproved sleeper.

Having now described my invention what I claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent is:

1. A railway rail holding device comprising in combination with a railsupported by its flange on a sleeper, a U-shaped clip including a substantially circular loop portion which ends in an upper arm and a lowerarm, said lower arm being substantially parallel with but shorter thanthe other and said loop portion projecting outwardly from the plane ofthe shorter arm, two coaxial holes being provided respectively in saidarms at a point intermediate the loop portion of the clip and the end ofthe shorter arm, the sleeper having a recess spaced from the rail andadapted to receive the lower part of said loop portion, in such mannerthat, upon the loop portion of the clip being received in said recess,the end of the shorter arm abuts the edge Of the rail flange withoutcontacting the sleeper, while the longer arm bears upon the flange, andheaded fastening means adapted to be inserted with clearance in saidholes and secured in the sleeper for pressing vertically the longer armagainst the rail flange, the clip acting as a lever fulcrumed at theloop portion thereof with said longer arm and as an abutment for therail with said shorter arm.

2. A railway rail holding device according to claim 1 wherein the longerupper arm of said clip extends nearly to the web of the rail so that,before tightening of the fastening means said arm bears on the flangealong a line located adjacent to the web of the rail and, aftertightening, said arm bears on the said flange along a line near the edgeof the flange.

3. A railway rail holding device according to claim 1 wherein the longerupper arm of said clip ends in a downwardly bent hook portion adapted tobear upon the flange of the rail, the end of said hook portion beingdirected toward the wall of said upper arm and normally spaced from saidwall, so that when the tightening of said fastening means has beencompleted, said end contacts said wall.

4. A railway rail holding device according to claim 1, wherein a bushingis interposed between the loop portion of the clip and the wall of saidrecess in the sleeper, said bushing being provided with side lugsadapted to bear upon the sleeper for transmitting to the same thepressure from the loop and preventing any rocking movement of saidbushing.

ROGER SONNEVILLE.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,008,941 Armstrong July 23, 1935FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 673,917 France Jan. 21, 1930 6 ,2 6F c -=--.--7---- p l 930

